Mental Health Awareness Week - Mental Wellbeing, Exercise and Young People
Mental Health Awareness Week - 13-19 May 2024
"Movement: Moving more for our mental health"
5 minute read: Mental Wellbeing, Exercise and Young Adults
This week, Imagine Independence is sharing blogs to celebrate Mental Health Week. Today, our blog focuses on young adults. The theme “Movement: Moving more for our mental health” highlights the positive impact that movement can have on our mental health. Over the last 5 years or so, Imagine has delivered mental health awareness/first aid training to hundreds of students, teachers and youth workers, helping our next generation to be resilient to the knocks of every day life and recover from trauma. A reoccurring theme in discussions is the importance of connection, support and of course, exercise.
Most people working with and alongside young people will agree with this statement from the Royal College of Psychiatrists: “Exercise keeps our heart, body and mind healthy. There’s evidence that exercise can help in depression and anxiety, and help to reduce stress. To work properly your body needs regular exercise”. It can have lots of different benefits for different people including helping you to feel good about yourself, improving your sleep and improving your mood. Even a short burst of 10 minutes of brisk walking increases our mental alertness, energy and positive mood. Participation in regular physical activity can increase our self-esteem and can reduce stress and anxiety.
With worries about self-image and support from families to increased screen-time and rising costs, having the potential to disrupt healthy activities, even movement can be impacted. Research by the WHO World Health Organisation shows a drop in exercise for 11 to 17 year olds in the majority of countries around the world, and on average girls get less exercise than boys. Factors involved in reducing activity in young people can be demographic, psychological, biological, environmental and social – all of which can affect mental health too. Much of the science behind exercise and good mental health is based around our body’s chemistry: When we exercise our brains release 'feel-good' chemicals called endorphins in our brains. It also positively affects chemicals called 'dopamine' and 'serotonin' which are related to depression and anxiety.
If you work with young people, or are a parent looking for ideas, Imagine Independence recommends the Five Ways to Wellbeing: each area (connect, get active, take notice, learn, give) can be used to encourage movement or even full-on exercise. For young adults and children, having a hobby that gets them up and about can be a good source of exercise, good for their mental wellbeing and have social benefits too. Here’s a video link for five-ways-to-wellbeing It’s a good place to start, especially when everything seems very daunting.
Why not head over to the Mental Health Foundation to find out more about movement and mental health, and if any of the things we’ve spoken about in this blog are impacting on your mental health, Kooth have an excellent website with resources to help young people with their mental health, even during periods of crisis.
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